Former JROTC Instructor Pleads Guilty to Assaulting Student

A former Junior ROTC instructor for a southern Missouri high school has pleaded guilty to repeatedly grazing a student’s body with a knife and giving her enough alcohol to pass out.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that 57-year-old David Russell Long admitted Monday to two counts of second-degree assault and child endangerment. As part of the plea, 13 additional felony charges were dropped, including multiple counts of second-degree statutory sodomy.

Allegations against Long first surfaced in late 2016, when a former student contacted the Mountain Grove Police Department to allege she had been in a sexual relationship with “her JROTC instructor” that lasted for more than a year. She said the relationship started in August 2014.

Long spent a decade teaching JROTC courses at Mountain Grove High School.